04-08-2013, 02:12 PM
Black wrote:What do we have to lose by China annexing North Korea?
[quote=freeradical]
I understand that one of ours and South Koreas's concerns, is that China might try to annex North Korea, and we might simply be saying "Don't do it"...
We lose any chance of the eventual reunification of Korea, which China perceives as a significant threat.
I read some analysis many years ago that suggested such a move would create the world's 4th largest standing army backed by nuclear armaments, an economic superpower to rival Japan and China (albeit not as quite as large.) And whereas China has tremendous, nigh-impassable mountain ranges between it and its other nearby nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan, Korea is right on its doorstep and across a modest sea from its capitol.
I hold the view that it's in China's interest to:
1) Allow North Korea to initiate non-nuclear hostilities.
2) Observe US / S Korean / Japanese response w.r.t. deployment of modern technology.
3) Develop countermeasures to Allies technology.
4) Annex N. Korea and Taiwan. Possibly invade S. Korea and attack Japan to take out infrastructure.
If there were a way China could do this incurring a nuclear war with the US they would do so immediately. They have nothing to lose but some modest munitions and soldiers that can be readily replaced and much to gain in terms of supplying the additional markets previously serviced by the territory they would capture.